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I Really Like the BlackBerry Bold 9650

The best BlackBerry decision I have ever made was to upgrade from the BlackBerry Storm to the BlackBerry Bold 9650. Robb previously raised the point that the Bold 9650 could not do anything the Storm couldn’t, so why upgrade? Well, 512 MB of RAM is a lovely reason to upgrade to the Bold 9650, and that feature alone made every issue I had with the Storm seem to vanish. I was constantly struggling with memory restrictions on the Storm and now that is all history.

Another benefit was the physical keyboard, but not for the obvious reason you might be thinking. I like typing on the glass keyboard of the Storm because the keys are larger and I can decide between SureType (Preferred) and Qwerty. The real benefit was the constant presence of the keyboard allowing me to use all the great BlackBerry shortcuts. This makes the Torch a nice hybrid option as you can have the best of both worlds.

I think my favorite change is how the phone feature is handled. On the Storm, when you press the talk button it puts you to a phone dialer screen. From here you can go to a call log or the contact list. On the Bold, you arrive at a call log window that lets you scroll the log, dial a number or enter a contact name all from one screen. For me, this is an efficiency I did not realize I was missing.

My BlackBerry is my work device and it is great at being a phone (regardless of how I hold it) and at messaging. I have only installed Google Maps, PodTrapper, Capture It, TripIt and Google Voice. I no longer need Meterberry as memory usage is no longer a concern. I am looking for some other useful apps, but I think those will go on the iPhone as that is more of a play device.

Overall, this move to the Bold has been a good transition and I have not even looked back at my Storm. The only real downside was resending invites to my BBM contacts which makes me believe I did something wrong in the process. Either way, the Bold 9650 is a HUGE winner for me, and is a great phone.

Yes, you did do something wrong with respect to BBM. You simply needed to backup the bbm contacts on the memory card of the storm and then bring them in from the backup on the 9650. Your contacts wouldn’t even know you were on another device. Or you could have done a Switching Device via Desktop Manager.

Well, I never said that the BlackBerry Bold couldn’t do anything that the Storm couldn’t do. I believe I said that it wasn’t worth upgrading to the 9650 from the Storm unless you really wanted Wi-Fi before BB6 came out.

Yes, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 has significantly more memory, and a bit better battery life, but, beyond that, what can you do on it that you cannot do on a Storm? I can make it through an entire day on a charge and don’t care about Wi-Fi…

Well if RIM’s tweets are to be believed, the big deal you can do on a 9650 that the Storm can’t do is run BlackBerry 6. Over the next few months that’s gonna become a bigger deal as hopefully developers warm to BlackBerry 6 and start releasing the sorts of cool apps other platforms have.

Oh…and the Storm can’t do OpenGL gaming that Storm2 and Bold9650 can do. I can’t wait to see what devs do with the 9650’s OpenGL hardware and BlackBerry 6!

Here’s hoping the “Odin Refresh” drops soon though and with BlackBerry 6. I’m eligible for an upgrade and plan to hold out for Storm3/Storm2a/whatever they call it. The limited memory in this Storm is really becoming a drag.

You are suppose to be on holiday not monitoring my mistakes in quoting you. LOL

I use the heck out of my phones. The Storm lasts about 3-5 hrs on a charge but the 9650 is not much better. Keep in mind I am what AT&T calls a Data Hog. My issue with the Storm was I had to reboot 4x per day to keep it operational at the end. I was asking too much of the device given the hardware profile. With the 9650 the hardware meets my demands.

Now Robb seriously enjoy your last day on vacation. And don’t read the article titled RIM Encryption is in an Endless News Cycle. Unless you have tin foil with you.

I upgraded to the 9650 from the 8330 and like the device but the reception bars are constantly changing. Sometimes it shows no bars and I can still make phone calls. Now I just ignore the reception bars and go about my business. Anyone else see this?